nz: stewart island

The day started off at 4:30am…it was dark and still pouring outside. So I did all that I could do – hauled all my crap in the middle of the night to the bus and found a seat as quickly as possible so I could go back to sleep. Ahhh, sleep…how I’ve missed you! Before I knew it, we were at the ferry terminal and needed to get a move on as we were running late.

In only an hour – I was on Stewart Island. The rain hadn’t let up – it had just gotten worse. So much for thinking that the weather was going to clear up so we could get the most out of being on the island. The main reason I wanted to go to Stewart Island was to chill out at the beach and possibly kayak a little if I got bored with doing nothing much. The rain made sure that wasn’t going to happen and so I quickly needed to whip out Plan B. What the hell was Plan B! After much forced consultation with the folks at the Red Shed, we decided it was best to rent a car and get out for short little walking bits (hardly any of the island has paved roads so there really was no choice in the matter).

The four of us with the Rat

Luckily, we got one of the last cars available and it was called the Rat. It was tiny but as soon as we hit the little windy roads, it all made sense. As it continued to pour down in buckets, our fearless driver navigated the Rat on tight roads and got us as close as possible to the desired destinations. The rain never let up that day and now it eerily seems like the clouds bursting in the manner they were was just foreshadowing for the days to come. But on that particular day on Stewart Island it meant nothing to us other than the weather gods were out to get us. We may have been cold and miserable and possibly look like 4 people who decided to take a shower with their clothes on but thankful that we got our hands on the Rat and had a chance to explore the island as much as we could that day.